Let’s all take a deep breath, and remember that digital, streaming video is now a thing. I enjoy being able to push a button and watch video that never coils itself around my neck, and never squeezes the life out of me.

I’d forgotten how much until I tried to load some old family films into a projector, this afternoon. Crunch, Crunch, snap. Well, what did you expect? It’s pretty old film, and a slightly less old projector.

Back in his day, my grandfather was quite the camera buff. That’s a euphemism for “I have more feet of film than Warner Brothers.” None of this film has any recognizable plot, of course. It’s very episodic. I don’t believe I’ve ever manage to sit through a complete family film marathon.

But, long story short, it’s a few moments of historical interest interspersed with hours of mid-century wholesome.

The film was transferred to VHS in the eighties, and now to DVDs (yes, just now. DVDs.) And by gosh and by golly, the moment the VHS goes out to be transferred… well, that’s when the videos are absolutely needed right now.

So, we turn to the originals.

We are looking–in a million billion years worth of family videos–for a two minute segment featuring my great-grandfather the blacksmith blacksmithing.

Did I mention these are in unlabeled, un-indexed canisters? We might have had labels once, but… not now.

The project has now been rescheduled for my next day off. And probably every other day off, until such time as the DVDs arrive.

Suffice it to say, you’ll be getting pictures. (Yeah. I know. I may have inherited that.)

Or, you’ll be getting a nice summons to act as character witnesses in my inevitable abuse of an elderly projector trial. One or the other.